A Fiend in the Darkness
by kawaiiLizard
Summary: An alternate ending to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein... Victor has died, but his creation still lurks aboard Walton's ship.


A/N: An alternate ending to Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_, an assignment from English class. The first paragraph is lifted directly from the novel; it serves as a starting point from which my new ending begins.  
  
  
  
  
  
I entered the cabin where lay the remains of my ill-fated and admirable friend. Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe—gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions. As he hung over the coffin, his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy. When he heard the sound of my approach, he ceased to utter exclamations of grief and horror and sprung towards the window. Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such loathsome yet appalling hideousness. I shut my eyes involuntarily and endeavoured to recollect what were my duties with regard to this destroyer. I called on him to stay (Shelley 194).  
  
He paused and, turning about to face me, twisted his features into a grisly countenance of malice. The sudden change from grief to malevolence shocked me and all words flew from my tongue as he began to advance towards me. Every step he took forwards I countered with one back, until I found myself pressed against the far wall of the cabin. I anticipated an attack and prepared to brace myself, only to find that he had stopped and merely stared with yellow eyes across the gap between us. Time stood still until his black lips parted and he began to speak.  
  
"You," he began, his voice harsh with rage, "you have caused me this pain, as you are an accomplice to my creator. It is because of his detestable hand that I am such a miserable creature of the night, that I have enacted such murderous deeds. It is because of you that I am here now, standing aboard this ship, observing the body of he whose work gave me life! It is by your actions and his that I must forsake my quest and endure such feelings of misery."  
  
"Wretch!" I cried, silence loosening its hold on my tongue at last. "Wherefore have you come here? If not to end your creator's life, then to mourn it? A monstrosity such as you has no place in this world, especially when you have caused such pain and anguish to befall so commendable a man as Victor Frankenstein!"  
  
"That name!" He screamed with a fury I had never before heard and will doubtless never hear again. Seizing a chair with his massive hands he began gesticulating wildly with it over his head, eventually crashing it into a table nearby. I admit that I cowered back against the wall for fear of injury to my person, but upon seeing him reach maliciously for the corpse of my poor friend the wrath within me swelled and burst forth. I frantically looked around the relatively small cabin, in desperate search of a weapon of some kind with which to defend the deceased man whom I had come to call my only friend on my long Arctic journey. It was only then that my eyes fell upon the crossed decorative swords that hung above my desk on the sidewall. While the risk was great that I would not reach them in time, the need to defend my companion was overwhelming; with a sudden burst of speed I dashed for the swords.  
  
Oh, the terror the cabin at that moment held! As I lunged for the blades the abomination did so as well; it is only by an act of Providence that I managed to reach them first. Grasping the rapier in hand I twisted about, eager to defend my fallen comrade and myself from the ghastly creature before me. "Be gone, fiend!" I shouted as I thrust the cold steel at him. Miraculously, I felt the blade pierce his appalling flesh, and as I watched he stumbled back, clutching at his chest and the sword that protruded from it. Releasing my hold, I scrambled away, anxious to see that harm had not come to the remains of dear Victor. Thankfully, he remained well and, with a strength previously unknown to me, I lifted his cold body from the bed where he lay and escaped the death-filled room. Upon exiting I commanded a handful of men, roused by the creature's screams, to barricade the door immediately in an attempt to shut the monster from our lives forever. I believed him to be dead; I had seen the sword thrust into his torso by my own hand and could think of no way for breath to still pass through his detestable lips.  
  
A week passed thus, with the body of my dear companion laid to rest in the dark abyss of the Arctic sea the day after the attack. With each passing day, I ordered my men to check the barricade that blocked entrance to what had previously been my study. My fears gradually subsided during the daylight hours, but each and every night the abomination returned to haunt me in my nightmares. Each night I desperately battled with the wretched being, frantically trying to defend my compassionate friend from the creature that so plagued his daily life. Only in death could Victor find peace, both by leaving this miserable world and by my destroying his creation.  
  
After a week's time, the ice broke and my crew and I were able to begin our long journey back home, to England. As we sailed away from the frozen wasteland that had so long been our captor and the final resting place of my only companion on this extensive voyage, a newfound courage instilled my slowly thawing bones. Two weeks to the day after I was startled by the abomination Victor had created so long ago, I awoke one morning with a burning desire to reenter my study. I know not what possessed me to do so; perhaps the departed spirit of Frankenstein chose to revisit me that night and infuse me with the valor necessary to confront his greatest fear. As the glorious first rays of morning shone down around me, I arose from my slumber and, with a determined air to my step, strode confidently towards my former study. Along the way I enlisted the aid of two of my crewmen currently on deck, and together we three tore down the blockade that had so long denied entry to all. As we demolished the fortifications set in place two weeks prior, my nerve both faltered and persisted. As the last beam came down I rested my hand on the doorknob, mentally preparing myself for the grotesque image that would await me inside. With a deep breath I gathered my courage and, in one swift motion, threw open the cabin door.  
  
Empty! The cabin was completely bare, save for a discarded sword and some shattered glass and splintered wood from a smashed porthole. The creature was nowhere to be seen. The terror that filled my soul at that moment was incomprehensible! The abomination lived and, worse, had escaped. Immediately, I turned to my two men and commanded an instantaneous and intensely thorough search of the entire ship. Intending to assist them I dashed to the deck, but the bitter morning air assailed my senses and in my weakened state I found I could not aid them. I retreated to my quarters where, unfortunately, I discovered that I had a great amount of time to think of the predicament in which I now found myself. After another week, the monster's whereabouts were still unknown and my fears had increased tenfold. Every night he tormented me, only his threats were no longer a figment of my imagination; they could become real at any moment, and I feared I would go mad at the mere thought of it all.  
  
  
  
  
  
(c) 2003 Liz D. 


End file.
